In a fit of nostalgia and true appreciation for the series reboot, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, here are some quick, simple rules for using Savage Worlds to run a game set in the wondrous, magical world of Equestria. If you have a young daughter, sister, or niece you'd like to introduce to RPGs, this would be a fun way to do it. Although, knowing most gamers, the sessions might end up more like THIS or THIS.

What? It's a good show! With several genuinely funny moments per episode!_________________'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

Last edited by SavageGamerGirl on Wed Sep 26, 2012 11:51 am; edited 1 time in total

Joined: 15 May 2003Posts: 5154Location: Podunk Junction, State of Confusion

Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:06 am Post subject:

I believe VonDan came up with something along those lines a while back. Assuming it hasn't been culled already, I imagine it's buried pretty deeply on the Home Brew board._________________The rabbit is cuddly. Kids like little cuddly sidekicks. I mean... The rabbit... It's a time-tested... Okay, the rabbit bites.
Blog: http://sittingduck1313.livejournal.comThe Gamer's Codex Reviewer

It was created by Lauren Faust, the creative genius behind Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. The two-level humor of that show is present in this one. It's a show that kids and parents (or childless adults like me ) can watch and both groups enjoy it.

Friendship is Magic decidedly does not have the vapid cutesiness of the original 80's cartoon. Sure, it's a kid's show, so it does have its cutesy moments, but it does have more of an edge than you'd expect from something called "My Little Pony." Characters get hurt, they argue, they get into physical fights -- sometimes with each other. It's not always sunshine and roses in Ponyville..._________________'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

I remember seeing a couple of episodes of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends while visiting family (my nieces were fond of it), and that seemed surprisingly watchable as well.

I'm curious as to what sort of adventures you'd imagine PCs partaking of in such a setting? I've often wondered how one could adapt "children's storybook" settings to roleplaying games, when so often they depend upon very specific events to occur, in order to maintain the proper feel.

MLP wouldn't be the same if the ponies ended up getting past that manticore by trampling it with their cute little hooves or poking it with their cute little unicorn horns, or flying over it with their cute little wings and dropping boulders on its head ... and that's probably the sort of thing a group of adventurers would think of first.

Maybe a game setting like this would benefit from the optional Interlude rules, making for more of a "shared storytelling" experience, rather than more conventional "explore, fight bad guys, get stuff or find clues" types of adventures.

Or, of course, you could always just be subversive or silly and have the MLP up against, oh, I dunno ... Care Bears gone bad? (I am reminded of the TMNT RPG from way back when, and the "Scare Bears.")

Alas! They had to go and "defuse" their Big Bad in the pilot. I mean, a 1000-year prophecy! How to top THAT?

I'll have to show this to Wendy and see what she thinks. _________________

Unrelated to gaming, but is what I find most interesting about MLP is the animation looks to be vector-based as opposed to the traditional hand drawn frames. This makes the animation very much like a flash cartoon you'd find on Newgrounds or similar sites, and could very well be made using flash. Thus, a small team could produce very smooth, fluid animation that doesn't detract from the story as cell animation might (with choppy high-action scenes and 'hidden' doors that are immediately obvious).

I'm curious as to what sort of adventures you'd imagine PCs partaking of in such a setting?

To be honest, I'm not really sure. This was more of an exercise in game mechanics by a fan than any real attempt to make a playable setting.

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Or, of course, you could always just be subversive or silly and have the MLP up against, oh, I dunno ... Care Bears gone bad? (I am reminded of the TMNT RPG from way back when, and the "Scare Bears.")

From a gamer's perspective, it would probably be easiest to run this as an "innocence corrupted" setting. It *was* a cute little land of prancing ponies, but something went VERY wrong.

Or, the PCs could live on a borderland beset by ogres and monsters and evil wizards where combat is a part of life. The central region of Equestria is quiet and peaceful, but it's bordered by wickedness on all sides. After all, Princess Celestia is always escorted by armored guards. If all was peaceful, why would that be necessary?_________________'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

To be honest, I'm not really sure. This was more of an exercise in game mechanics by a fan than any real attempt to make a playable setting.

No problem with that! That's just one of the stumbling blocks that trips up most of my "Wouldn't it be neat to play a _____ campaign?" thought exercises. Coming up with cool character options is one thing. Figuring out what the heroes will DO is another.

SavageGamerGirl wrote:

From a gamer's perspective, it would probably be easiest to run this as an "innocence corrupted" setting. It *was* a cute little land of prancing ponies, but something went VERY wrong.

Perhaps it could be an alternate universe where the conflict in the opening episode didn't come out as planned. What if the main character (Twilight Something-or-Other - Sparkle?) didn't make the same friends, or they didn't pass their little "tests" quite like they should? For whatever reason, everything didn't fall just PERFECTLY into place (an awfully tall order to ask of a few little ponies on a quest to save the world), and the world was therefore plunged into darkness for longer than a couple of half-hour episodes.

Maybe title it "My Little Nightmare." I kind of like the ring to that. =)

Or, if you didn't want to go the alternate-universe route, so that you could count events in later episodes as canon (I haven't seen all of them, so I don't know what sort of material might be relevant), perhaps it's just that despite appearances, Nightmare Moon was still perhaps just a LITTLE bit resentful of being imprisoned for a thousand years, and so once more that "spirit of darkness" is born within her.

Cue the storm clouds, creepy spirits, et al.

SavageGamerGirl wrote:

After all, Princess Celestia is always escorted by armored guards. If all was peaceful, why would that be necessary?

A very good point! Judging from the precedent set so far, all sorts of animals and classic mythic creatures might be found, though there doesn't seem to be a clear trend on which ones are capable of speech and which ones are not. (And even the critters who can't speak quite often seem to be able to communicate their intents to the ponies, at least.)

Hmm. I'm not quite sure what this says for carnivores in the world, and whether all animals are considered sapient. (Since earthworms were merely a gross-but-not-horrific inclusion in a recipe, I'll assume they draw the line somewhere in this universe on sapience. )

At the very least, ponies aren't predators, and aren't carnivores, so that spares us a bit of scary "fridge logic."

It's still a little disturbing that the cows are among the talking critters, as that might render a great many dessert items (i.e., dairy products and gelatin) ... er ... definitely off the menu.

To be honest, and as much of a Savage fan I am, I think for a MLP game, something more narrative based would be a better fit, such as PDQ or Fate. There was a treatment on some forum I'm trying to find, it seemed like it'd work nice for younger and first-time pony fans.

Admittedly, the idea of running a My Little Pony Savage Worlds game is rather silly.

However, the core idea has merit. Ditch the cutesy MLP baggage, and perhaps this could be spun off into a setting where the PCs are non-humanoid mythical creatures that fled the Human world into a protected otherworld. This is similar to the concept of the faeries' passage in British folklore. The characters would be griffons, unicorns, very young dragons, pegasi, etc. defending their dwindling world.

Just balance the creature types using the race creation rules in the Fantasy Companion so everything's fair, and you're good to go._________________'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

...the PCs are non-humanoid mythical creatures that fled the Human world into a protected otherworld. This is similar to the concept of the faeries' passage in British folklore. The characters would be griffons, unicorns, very young dragons, pegasi, etc. defending their dwindling world.

So essentially, a Changeling: The Dreaming game based in The Dreaming, where all the characters are Chimera instead of Fey._________________Yes! I have captured your cat and placed him in this box where he will either flourish or perish as chance dictates!

I guess, but I can't really answer that. I know very little about Changeling other than it's a WOD setting with fey folk.

So... yes? But with Savage Worlds? _________________'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!